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Friendly Competition – A new feature!

April 3, 2011

I am pleased to announce a New Feature here at the Grody Gourmet! In conjunction with my friend Janet of This is Beige we are offering, for your cooking pleasure, a weekly (I hope) friendly cooking competition.

Here’s how it will go:

Each week, on Monday, we will announce an ingredient or type of dish that will serve as that week’s theme. With the exception of this week’s theme, the ingredient, and or type of dish will be chosen by my friend Margaret, the former Ivana Trump of Cincinnati.

Janet and I will have until Friday of the week to try different recipes, and come up with our best bet, which will be posted on Friday on our individual websites. Mine will be here, you can find Jan’s at the link above.

Over the weekend, Janet and I will make our dish, and the other person’s dish for our families, who will be the judges, along with Margaret, who will have to make both dishes. The votes will be sent to Margaret, who will tally the votes, and announce the winner on Mondays, along with the new theme/ingredient. This will mean Margaret will need to get a blog.

Janet and I will not tell our families what we’re up to, we will just ask them at the end of the week, “Hey, did you like the peanut butter and jelly pasta better, or the macaroni and spam?”, tally the results and send them to Margaret.

Our panel of judges are:

Scott – My terrific Husband and favorite kitchen tool. Will eat just about anything, but does not much care for beets or brussels sprouts.

Charlie – My youngest child, 16. He likes cereal. He will sometimes like anything you cook, and other times, hate everything. I expect him to be a firm vote for Janet every. single. week. Charlie’s favorite dinnertime quote “What is in this?”

Nahm – My youngest daughter, and exchange student from Thailand, 17. Nahm’s favorite Thai food is spaghetti carbonara. When I asked her favorite Thai dessert for an upcoming event I’m cooking for, she said “chocolate cake.” She does not care for most fruits or vegetables, although I have turned her on spinach since she’s been here. I expect to be able to win her vote by putting croutons and chocolate in every dish.

Vince – Janet’s Husband. Does a mean jigalo. I assume he is a good eater, because Janet is a really good cook.

Sean – Janet’s oldest. I think he is 15. I do not know what he eats or doesn’t eat. He runs track, fueled by ricotta pancakes.

Elise – Janet’s middle child, and only daughter. I think she’s in her early teens. She aspires to one day run a kitty farm. I believe she will love my meat substitutes.

Max – Janet’s youngest child. As you can see, I am a bad friend, because I’m not really sure how old any of her children are. I suspect he might hate vegetables, however, given that Janet’s children are excruciatingly perfect, maybe not.

Margaret – The former Ivana Trump of Cincinnati with a damned good palate. Believes the four food groups to be wine, cheese, chocolate and bread. I will use this information to my advantage.

Occasional Guest Judge, and, perhaps, official tie breaker, Gabriel, Margaret’s son. Early teenager, not quite 16. Very weird taste in food. Hates some stuff that is empirically delicious, loves some stuff that is officially gross.

If you’re up for it, You the reader. You are welcome to play if you like. Please submit your votes to Margaret’s soon to be created blog no later than Sunday evenings.

And now, without further ado – I give you – This Week’s Theme. Savory Oatmeal Surprise. It’s oatmeal.